Many existing mobile radio communications systems are compatible with the 3GPP standard, which is an international standardized specification provided by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The 3GPP standard is based on the evolution of the second generation (2G) mobile radio communications system known as the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and aims to provide a specification of a globally applicable third generation (3G) mobile radio communication system.
From the 3GPP standard Release 99 and onwards functionalities are included that enable a user of a 3G user equipment to make a multimedia call, comprising both audio and video, to a user of another 3G user equipment.
In order to get a multimedia call established between two 3G user equipments, it is required that both of the 3G user equipments are multimedia capable and within coverage of a 3G mobile radio communication system. However, if a user of a 3G user equipment attempts to make a multimedia call to another user which, for example, does not have a 3G user equipment, or is not within coverage of a 3G mobile radio communication system, the mobile communication network node, that is, the mobile services switching centre (MSC), will release the call. The user attempting the multimedia call will then be prompted to give an indication on how to proceed, for example, whether to establish an ordinary voice call instead.
While this enables users to readily choose a voice call instead, prompting the choice of a voice call instead of a multimedia call is often perceived as negative and awkward by the user and will decrease the user's willingness to attempt multimedia calls in the future. This since the user may consider it unnecessary to attempt a multimedia call in the first place, since in practice he can achieve the same result, that is, the ordinary voice call, easier and faster by establishing the voice call to begin with.
Particularly, this may occur in situations where the probability of successfully establishing a multimedia call is not very high, such as, for example, in areas where the 3G mobile radio communications system coverage is not as good as the coverage of the 2G mobile radio communications system, or in areas where most users don't yet have 3G user equipments.
This leads to end users not utilizing the full features of their 3G user equipments, and the multimedia services and opportunities provided thereto. Also, since the end users then will be unfamiliar with how to use the multimedia services provided by the mobile network operators, it will be difficult for them to use new emerging multimedia services for 3G user equipments as they are introduced by the mobile network operators.